Subject Six
by Centino Finito
Summary: Most cowboys tend to fade into legend. But there is one who never stopped, who is still watching and protecting to this day. This is his story.


Kahler-Tek looked down from his cliff, tirelessly watching the sandy wastes. _Mercy must be protected_, his programming echoed without end. He had resigned himself to being without purpose, and in return the people of this small town had given him purpose. He owed them a great debt, and this was the only way, short of self-destruction, of paying them back.

The cyborg turned his eyes towards the town. With a reflex as simple as blinking, he increased the magnification of his artificial vision. The little girl was playing in the town square, a game where the other children all ran away from her. Until she touched one of them, then they ran away from him. His curiosity aroused, Tek increased the strength of his audio receivers. As far as he could gather from eavesdropping, the game appeared to go by the moniker of "tag, you're it". He remembered a similar game from his childhood on Kahler, played in the sky with spaceships the children had built. A nostalgic smile formed on the cyborg's face of flesh, and he wondered at the similarities between the little girl and himself. Maybe...

A buzzing noise rang in his ear, an alarm that protocol had been breached. Kahler-Tek saw something down there, outside the tavern. A display lit up in the corner of his eye, and he remembered his purpose. The peace needed to be protected. Without moving a muscle, the Gunslinger faded like a ghost.

"Get out of town, you yeller-bellied trash!" The young man Dockery threw a shot glass at the man from out of town, who batted it away with a sneer.

"Shut your mouth, boy!" He drew his gun and cocked it, giving a little laugh as the young man drew his own. "Really, son? Pulling a gun on me? Thought they called this town Mercy."

"We do," Dockery answered. "But I don't reckon you're entitled to a share of it."

"All I did was ask the pretty lady what she was doing tonight."

"What you _said_, scumbag, and I wish I didn't have to say it myself, was 'sure hope yer bed's got room for two'! What sort of trash are you?"

"The kind who gets what comin' to him. Now take a walk."

Dockery stood there for a moment, as though unsure whether or not to stand aside. Then he looked up, and he grinned humorlessly. "You're in for it now." At the same time, the man heard a strange sound behind him, unlike anything he had heard before.

"This town," the man asked, a little nervous now, "why don't it have a marshal or a sheriff?"

"We got our own arrangement," Dockery said, and smiled as though he was hiding a secret. "And speak of the devil, I think he's here. Hope you can handle it, mister."

The man turned around in bewilderment, and took a step back in terror. For there, with his weapon primed and all compassion gone from his single eye, the Gunslinger stood.

"Make peace with your gods, lawbreaker." The Gunslinger leveled his weapon at the man's face, who trembled and shook. In a last gesture of defiance, he pulled the trigger of his gun, and his eyes widened at the sound of metal striking metal.

"Terminate."

Within minutes, the body had been removed by the undertaker. Life moved on, and everyone settled down again. What little the man had brought in on his horse was confiscated and shared out amongst the townsfolk, with a large dividend set aside for the woman who had been insulted. Dockery smiled as she accepted the compensation, then gave Kahler-Tek a glance.

"Nice job, marshal. I was worried there for a moment."

"Your sentiment is appreciated, but your anxiety was not necessary. I was constructed to withstand fire from advanced Kahler weaponry. Crude Earthling firearms have no effect."

"All the same, thanks for what you did."

"You are welcome. Now, I should return to my post."

Tek turned around and walked off, and was just priming the teleporter when a young voice called him. It was the little girl.

"Mister Tek," she asked him, watching with a strange mixture of respect and amusement, "do you wanna come play?"

For a moment, Kahler-Tek thought of saying no. Then he looked into the little girl's eyes, and knew what his answer would be.

"I would love to."


End file.
